September 3, 2009

Fighting antisemitism in Canada

Prof. Dr. Yakov M. Rabkin

Canada's parliamentarians have formed a committee to fight antisemitism.

All
initiatives to combat racism deserve praise, provided this work benefit
Canadians, rather than serve the interests of foreign powers. One such power is
the State of Israel for whom antisemitism provides its raison d’être.

According
to the Israeli author Tom Segev, the founder of Zionism Theodore Herzl
considered antisemites «our friends and allies»: antisemites want to be rid of
Jews while Zionists want to gather them to Israel.

Many
Jews realized this and opposed Zionism from its very beginning in the late 19th
century: they saw that Zionists played into the hands of their worst enemies,
the antisemites.

Indeed,
the Zionists’ cooperation with antisemites was usually harmonious. Thus, in the
1930s, Zionist emissaries in Germany established a smooth working relationship
with the Nazi authorities.

In
the opinion of Howard Sachar, American historian sympathetic to the Zionist
movement, Adolf Eichmann, who was then in charge of Jewish emigration, “dealt
cordially and cooperatively with Zionist representatives from Palestine. When
the Zionists sought permission to open vocational training camps for future
emigrants [to Palestine], Eichmann willingly supplied them with housing and
equipment”.

Ever
since 1948, when the Zionists unilaterally declared independence against the
will of Palestine’s non-Jewish majority, Israeli leaders openly worry about
Jews becoming again a minority in the Holy Land.

To
counter this spectre, they encourage immigration of Jewish citizens of other
countries. Since most immigrants have moved to Israel under the threat – real
or perceived – of antisemitism, rather than for ideological reasons,
antisemitism has served Israel’s interests.

The
former head of Israel’s intelligence services Y. Harkabi warned a few years
ago: “It would be a tragic irony if the Jewish state, which was intended to
solve the problem of antisemitism, was to become a factor in the rise of
antisemitism. Israelis must be aware that the price of their misconduct is paid
not only by them but also Jews throughout the world.”

Nowadays
Jews in Canada and other countries are increasingly associated with Israel’s
bomber aircraft, gun-toting soldiers and Zionist settlers that fill the TV
screens of the world.

However,
Israeli authorities are not concerned that their policies towards the
Palestinians breed antisemitism around the world. To the contrary, the rise of
antisemitism supports their claim that only in Israel can a Jew feel safe.

At
the same time, “vassals of Israel” (a term coined by the former Israeli ambassador
to France Elie Barnavi for individuals often mistaken for Jewish leaders), not
only proclaim their loyalty to Israel, they defiantly fly Israeli flags at the
entrance of Jewish institutions, including old-age homes and hospitals.

This
irresponsible conflation of Israel and Jewish Canadians provokes antisemitism
and invites hostility. The standard Zionist claim that Israel - a distant and
bellicose state most Jews neither control nor inhabit - is "the state of
the Jewish people” implicates innocent Jews in Canada into what Israel is and
does. This is what foments antisemitism in our country.

Ironically,
while these “vassals of Israel” contribute to the growth of anti-Jewish
sentiment in Canada, they hurl accusations of antisemitism at even the most
moderate critics of Israel. It is this heavy-handed tactic that generates
resentment and feeds antisemitism.

Conversely,
Canadian Jews who speak against Israeli abuses of power – such as Independent
Jewish Voices – profoundly undermine antisemitic beliefs. They embody the
diversity of Jewish life – “two Jews, three opinions” – that flies in the face
of the antisemitic canard of the world Jewish conspiracy.

In
the wake of the Holocaust, many prominent Jews, including the philosopher Martin
Buber and the political scientist Hannah Arendt, warned that establishing an
ethnic state for Jews would plunge the entire region into incessant violence.

They
believed that only a pluralistic state for all inhabitants of Palestine would
ensure peace. Since then, over a million Israeli citizens have left their
perennially threatened ethnocracy for liberal democracies elsewhere. Many more
Israeli Jews have settled in Canada than Canadian Jews who have left their
country for Israel.

Canadians
mean well when they associate Jews, who suffered in the Holocaust because of
their ethnicity, with the state of Israel, which has assured this ethnic group
a monopoly on power.

Thus
they uphold the myth according to which Israel represents the Jews around the
world and constitutes their natural homeland. This does not help to fight
prejudice.

To
fight antisemitism, it is crucial to dissociate Jews and Judaism from the State
of Israel and its behaviour. Our parliamentarians should affirm the right of
all Canadians to criticize Israel like any other country in the world, without
the fear of being labelled antisemitic. This would be a sure way to rid Canada
of the scourge of antisemitism, new and old.

Dr. Yakov M.
Rabkin is Professor of History at
the University of Montreal.

His
recent book, A Threat from within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism
(Fernwood), has been translated to eight languages and nominated for the
Governor General Award.